FEDERAL SECTOR REPORT

POWERFUL EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES

Executive summaries are brief but carry more than their own weight in Washington. They are the introductory pages to documents that influence decisions about millions and billions of dollars. Top brass may read only the executive summary.

While typically one to six pages in length, summaries can be a powerful force for winning. An executive summary is to a federal document what the "closing argument" is to a major legal case.

Think of the Microsoft anti-trust case. After months and months of testimony and maneuvers, attorneys for both sides attempted to win with a closing argument that summarizes, crystallizes, positions, and persuades. Similarly, executive summaries are pivotal to multimillion-dollar decisions that are riding on the effectiveness of documents--competitive proposals, plans, agency budgets, and reports.

Layers

While an outstanding executive summary appears to be simple and easy to read, it is usually quite complex, layered like poetry. There are up to five layers--factual, technical responsiveness, psycho-space, market position, and statutory:

Factual Layer. At this level, the executive summary provides an overview of the content of the larger document that it introduces. The overall themes and talking points of the document will be highlighted, and there will often be a description of how the larger document is organized. However, an executive summary needs to be more than a simple abstract.

Technical Responsiveness Layer. Documents must often comply with overriding federal requirements, and the most important three to six of these should be included in the executive summary. For grant and contract proposals, the evaluation criteria are crucial. For an agency capital investment plan, responsiveness to OMB circulars and memoranda will be crucial. For security plans, compliance with guidance from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) will usually be important. The executive summary must convince the reader that the document will be fully compliant and responsive to federal requirements.

Market Positioning Layer. There is always competition for resources in Washington. This means that your executive summary (and entire document) must define your "market position" in relationship to the competition. Maybe your bid for a favorable multimillion-dollar decision positions you as the most innovative ... or most reliable ... or best known ... or best value. That positioning needs to fit with your winning strategy ... and be communicated clearly in the executive summary.

Psycho-Spatial Layer. The organizational culture, work styles, and personal assumptions of the reader will establish a unique psycho-space that must be addressed indirectly in the executive summary. The executive summary must demonstrate that you understand the reader's preferred environment. This must usually be accomplished with subtlety--through familiar words, contexts, and reference points. Writing well for your target audience means that your reader feels at home--because the executive summary has quietly signaled that he or she can trust you.

Statutory Layer. Federal spending and priorities are driven, to an amazing degree, by federal statutes and regulations. If these are important to your case, they need to be cited and woven into your executive summary. A constructive use of law is sometimes a potent strategy for winning favorable decisions for contracts, grants, budgets, and programs. What's more, many high-level decision makers will appreciate you understanding of the statutory significance of your proposed actions.

The layers are intertwined. That is, you don't have a section subtitled facts, then technical, then market position; nor do you even mention these terms in the executive summary. Instead, you weave all of these layers together. Like a fine Persian rug or great poetry, you create a gestalt that fits all the layers together into an overall, powerful theme.

How to Write a Powerful Executive Summary?

The first step is to understand your audience, objective, and game plan. In terms of your larger document, you need to know your "forest" so well that you can forget about the trees. That is, you must think at a very high level of abstraction ... but at a level that is nonetheless well connected to reality.

Most people will need to write an executive summary in multiple stages. Here are some likely steps:

1. First you write a factual layer, which provides a general description of the overall document. The factual layer will ultimately be no more than 60 percent of the content of the final executive summary, though it may be longer at first, before you pare it down.
2. Next, make sure that your factual layer implies and supports the technical responsiveness layer. Do more than simply state that you are compliant; point out how you comply with the most important or difficult compliance factors.
3. Modify the executive summary with the spin that is appropriate to your market position. If you're the University of Chicago, you shouldn't pretend to be Notre Dame or Harvard University. The spin needs to magnify the strength of your compliance with technical factors.
4. Filter your draft through people who understand the audience. Usually you don't want them to write the executive summary because many people will botch the job. What you want is for them to review a draft. Then you want to interview them or conduct a focus group. Get enough feedback so you can shape the factual and compliance layers through their mindset.
5. Next, be sure any key statutory points are clearly stated. (In some cases, the statutory issues will be central to the factual and/or technical compliance layers.)

After you have gone through the above process, you have a draft of the executive summary. Now is the time to involve reviewers for reality checking. Then polish, polish, polish ... because the executive summary can be crucial to the decisiveness of your document.

SHIFTS IN THE FEDERAL BUDGET

President Bush will be recasting the federal budget in his State of the Union Message. Spending will rise, with a substantial federal deficit projected for Fiscal Year 2003.

However, new spending will focus almost exclusively on military and "homeland" spending for anti-terrorism initiatives. The administration's budget proposal will give a modest boost to education--more money for Title I programs (impoverished school districts) and aid for educating kids with disabilities.

Many agencies will barely keep up with inflation, overall, and some will lose money ... at least after adjustments for inflation. However, spending for contractors is likely to rise because (1) outsourcing is a key feature of the President's management reform agenda and (2) increased investments in information technology are unavoidable.

The congressional budget process could add significant modifications to the President's budget proposals ... particularly in an election year.

LINK OF THE MONTH

In February, you should stay tuned to the federal budget priorities. The high-level information will be at the White House Web Site, www.whitehouse.gov. The administration's nitty-gritty budget detail will be at the Office of Management and Budget: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb.

I've already told you that I served for awhile as the information technology program manager for www.whitehouse.gov, haven't I?

CONSULTING SERVICES

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